Principal’s Message

Welcome to the 2017-18 School Year at Allenby! Only three more days of summer! I hope that everyone enjoyed a relaxing yet fun-filled summer vacation and I look forward to reconnecting with students and families over the next few weeks. The school has been abuzz this week with teachers coming in to prepare their classrooms for the upcoming year. It has been wonderful hearing and sharing the excitement for the new school year and how they are already implementing our focus on 21st century learning into their classroom set-up and curriculum planning.

CONSTRUCTION

Of course, as I am sure many of you have seen, the buzz of construction also has continued this week. With that said, all work in classrooms was completed in advance of teachers returning allowing the set up of classes. All future work will take place in the evenings and on weekends (and will be minor with the connection of wires, etc.). Starting these projects before the start of summer certainly supported the completion of work now. Our pool however will be affected given the number of circulation and heating pipes that flow through this space. Allenby’s swim program will not begin until October. As I write this message I believe that the roofing project will be completed for the start of the school year (with only minor work not impacting staff or students into September), however, this is dependent on weather. If work has to continue it will only take place over a few days and will not begin within the first few days of school and not without a letter being sent home to families outlining the exact work. Rain, rain go away…

I would like to share a few items pertinent to the first day of school:

MEETING YOUR TEACHER ON DAY 1

Teachers will be in the yard beginning at 8:40 am on the first day of school along with myself and our new vice principal, Deborah Zamin. Grade 1 to 6 classes will be grouped by grade and there will be signs along the school yard fence to assist students in finding their teacher. Kindergarten teachers will be in the kindergarten yard. Additionally all teachers will be wearing name tags. Office staff and specialty teachers will have master lists for any student who does not remember their teacher’s name. Parents are asked to say goodbye to their children in the yard and the teachers will bring their classes into the building. Unless it is raining, no parent should enter the school with the students.

THE SCHOOL DAY

For grade 1 to 6 students, the morning bell rings at 8:50 am (with teachers supervising the yard beginning at 8:40 am). Lunch hour is from 11:45 am to 12:50 pm and dismissal is at 3:35 pm.

For our FDK classes, the morning entry will begin at 9:05 am. Teachers are supervising the yard beginning at 8:55 and parents can drop off their child at this time if they wish. All kindergarten students will be dropped off this year within the kindergarten yard and teachers in the first week will instruct parents which gate to enter (based on the class). After the first week of school no parent will be allowed to enter the kindergarten yard at drop off. Lunch is the same time as our primary/junior school and dismissal is at 3:20 pm.

INFORMATION PACKAGES

Student information packages will be sent home with students on the second day of school. A few items I want to bring to your attention (although they are also mentioned on the cover letter):

Please do not send $6 payment for agendas (grades 1-6). We are a cashless school and will send out notification regarding when to pay the $6 once SchoolsCash Online is updated.

No longer will you need to fill in all of your contact information…YEAH! This year you will receive a copy of the information we have on file and will simply make corrections, if needed. If everything is correct please mark a checkmark and still return it to us.

All of this information we are collecting relates to the safety and well-being of your children so please ensure this paperwork is returned by the deadline outlined.

WELCOME!

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